Sino-Italian cinema co-production has big potential: experts

"Our festival has always explored genres, of which China is a great producer, so that we have a lively dialogue with Chinese international distributors and producers," Baracetti explained. But at the same time, she also added, Sino-Italian co-production is not an easy field yet.

Baracetti cited the example of the "romantic comedy," a genre which she observed was the most popular in China at the moment. "The romantic comedy is also common in Italy, but this genre is traditionally strongly linked to the territory where it is produced, therefore it is difficult to export or co-produce," she noted. "The Sino-Italian co-production is a very open scenario, we still have to find a way to work together especially as regards content," she pointed out.

In her view, many good movies have come out of China, yet Western audiences still often have a sort of prejudice towards Asian cinema. "They imagine they cannot understand these movies or even recognize the faces of protagonists. But these worries can be quickly overcome, as shown by our festival which year after year has attracted growing audiences," she said.

"This is a confirmation that there is large space for co-productions. We just need to enhance dialogue with China's world of cinema, like other European countries have done," Baracetti said.

She said that presently the Far East Film Festival counts around 60,000 viewers including many international journalists and buyers. This year the festival has also launched, in partnership with the International Audiovisual Market (MIA), a new business platform called Focus Asia, to strength relations between Europe and Asia in the genres cinema market.

"We are very interested to host international productions, they bring inestimable value to our territory," said president of the Lombardia Film Commission, Alberto Di Rubba, adding that the filming of Chinese drama So Young took place in Milan and other cities of the Lombardy region.

Di Rubba said drama was very much appreciated in Italy, citing the results of surveys. "I have found that Chinese producers are very attracted by Italian locations," he said.